18/06/2016 21:26Big day coming up for semi-finalists at #EuroBeachVolleyU202016 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship

Antalya, Turkey, June 18, 2016. It was a tough day at the office for the teams participating in the 2016 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship in Antalya. The thermometer showed a temperature of 39° C, and some teams had to play as many as three matches on Saturday. At the end of this survival of the fittest, four teams still have the podium in sight: Belarus (Shalayeuskaya/Siakretava), The Netherlands (Stubbe/Daalderop), Italy (Traballi/Maestroni) and Russia (Zayonchkovskaya/Rudykh).

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Joy Stubbe and Nika Daalderop, the reigning champions of the CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship, are still in the race to retain their title. In the second round the Dutch girls competed with the Finnish girls Ida Sinisalo and Niina Ahtiainen, in a remake of last year’s final. In 2015 the Dutch needed three sets to beat Finland, this time they got the job done even faster (21-15, 21-15).

In the quarter-final Stubbe and Daalderop crossed their ways with Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka from Latvia, who they previously beat in the pool 2-0. This time the Latvian girls were able to give more resistance, especially when they took a 4-1 lead in the third set. Stubbe and Daalderop managed to overcome this gap and won the decisive set 15-10.

Interesting fact is that the other three semi-finalists all played in the same pool (G). Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya and Daria Rudykh from Russia, the winners of Pool G, advanced to the semi-final by beating Greece (Maria Klepkou and Paraskevi Kourtidou) and Poland (Kinga Legieta and Martyna Kloda).

The runners-up from pool G, Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya and Viktoryia Siakretava from Belarus, won three matches on Saturday. After surviving a thrilling third set in the first round against Aleyna Vence and Ebru Karayilan from Turkey, they beat Norway (Live Johanne Lunde Fossdal and Sunniva Helland-Hansen) in the second round in straight sets. In the quarter-final the Belarusian girls managed to extend their winning streak by booking a 2-0 victory (21-19, 21-17) over Spela Morgan and Tajda Lovsin from Slovenia.

The fact that Gaia Traballi and Ester Maestroni from Italy are qualified for the semi-final, is perhaps the biggest surprise of the day. Traballi and Maestroni had finished third in Pool G, but managed to fight their way to the last four after defeating Lithuania (Irina Zobnina and Migle Mazurkeviciute), Russia (Svetlana Kholomina and Daria Mastikova) and Turkey (Merve Nezir and Yaren Sencel). The mentally strong Italian girls showed loads of ‘grinta’ and stamina by winning all three matches they contested on Saturday in three sets.
Programme semi-finals Sunday: